The Sooner the Better When It Comes to Getting Paid

Many companies will admit that their back-office financial processes aren't nearly as efficient as they ought to be, but they're not fully aware of how much money that inefficiency is costing them. Not only that, but they expose their companies to a higher risk of operational breakdown should these inefficiencies get in the way of timely receipt of payments.

According to Elizabeth Kaigh, a financial management research specialist at APQC, there is a "statistically significant relationship" between the amount of receipts received electronically and cycle time from transmission of invoice to payment. "Organizations that increase their percentage of automated receipt processing," she notes, "can expect a shorter cycle time to complete this process, since electronic payments can travel at the speed of light, so to speak, while paper checks meandering through the postal system cannot possibly compete in terms of speed."

Kaigh admits that sometimes it's easier said than done to get your customers to pay electronically, but APQC's research indicates that it's definitely worth the effort.